sushi tei, town

good japanese chain outlet at the top of the raffles city shopping mall. so you must know by now that sushi tei is one of our favourite places – it’s become our regular hangout for decently reliable food at reasonable prices, and this was the first time we made it to the raffles city branch. this outlet isn’t anything particularly special, but we made quite a few good choices on the menu this time (instead of sticking to our regular orders) and I’d like to share. just because I’m nice like that.

pamplemousse bistro + bar, town

pretty good food and a value-for-money set lunch in a secluded part of dempsey. a girlfriend and I decided to come here for lunch one day – and they have a pretty cool fusionish menu, which I think would be a tad overpriced if going à la carte, but perfecty delightful at lunch-set-price, which is also offered on weekends (a nice gesture not often seen in restaurants). the food was generally surprisingly good and better than average, even if it wasn’t remarkably outstanding. and perhaps the best recommendation I can give is that I see myself coming back here again.

40 hands, tiong bahru

not-so-great over-hyped hipster brunch-type place in tiong bahru. I’m late to this place – which many bloggers have already hyped about – on purpose, primarily because I don’t care for queues and hype, and only came to this place while visiting some friends. it’s not crazy expensive in itself, and the food wasn’t bad, but it certainly isn’t cheap enough to return on that account – nor is the food great enough to return for (though apparently the coffee was pretty good).

ps.cafe, town

great little hideout and girlfriend-lunch place for brunch near chinatown. ps cafe remains close to my heart for one reason: their sticky toffee pudding. the location of their outlets are also fortuitously convenient – which means town, for me – and while the prices off their menu are always a tad more than you’d like to pay, it does mean coming here feels particularly like a treat – which is also good for the waisteline for I’d eat my weight in toffee and cake otherwise.

lime syrup cake

this is a riff on my (and my partner’s) favourite lemon cake recipe – which really is a zest-lifted sponge drizzled with a juice-y syrup. nothing mind-blowingly complicated, but the exchange of lemons for a couple of large and very vibrantly green lemon-limes did make for a cake with slightly more complexity in taste.